Salon.com > Warren Buffetthttp://www.salon.com
Sun, 02 Aug 2015 20:00:00 +0000enhourly1Sam Brownback is winning: Don’t be fooled by the hype — his radical experiment is far from finishedhttp://www.salon.com/2015/06/17/sam_brownback_is_winning_dont_be_fooled_by_the_hype_his_radical_experiment_is_far_from_finished/
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/17/sam_brownback_is_winning_dont_be_fooled_by_the_hype_his_radical_experiment_is_far_from_finished/#commentsWed, 17 Jun 2015 18:24:00 +0000Elias Isquithhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13994914Sam Brownback, like most ideologues, is a simple man. The story of how he turned Kansas into a post-modern operating theater, where everyone could watch supply-side economics transform a body politic into a battlefield of class warfare, on the other hand, is not. But to understand why the GOP’s anti-tax absolutism inexorably leads to nakedly factional and shamelessly plutocratic governance, you’ll need to understand them both.

Let’s start simple. Except for a brief flirtation with Bob Dole-style moderation back in the early ‘90s — a persona he abandoned upon realizing that something was, in fact, the matter with Kansas — the failed presidential candidate and former U.S. senator has always been an orthodox, even doctrinaire conservative Republican. He loves Jesus, hates abortion, opposes marriage equality and wants to roll back the welfare state.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/06/17/sam_brownback_is_winning_dont_be_fooled_by_the_hype_his_radical_experiment_is_far_from_finished/feed/175Warren Buffett to Elizabeth Warren: Smile, honey!http://www.salon.com/2015/03/02/warren_buffett_to_elizabeth_warren_smile_honey/
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/02/warren_buffett_to_elizabeth_warren_smile_honey/#commentsMon, 02 Mar 2015 18:58:00 +0000kmcdonoughhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13899325Warren Buffett thinks Elizabeth Warren should be “less angry” in her approach to politics. "I think that she would do better if she was less angry and demonized less,” the Berkshire Hathaway CEO said Monday, according to a report from Business Insider. “I believe in 'hate the sin but love the sinner.’ And I'm not sure that I've fully convinced Elizabeth Warren that that's the way to go.

"I think the whole nature of governing -- particularly when you've got a divided government like we have now -- is that you end up with bills that each side doesn't like but they like it better than doing nothing," he continued. "I mean, that's the way that government has to function. And it does not help when you demonize … the people you're talking to."

Buffett has written extensively about how the Wild West-nature of our financial system and our tax code has produced unprecedented economic inequality while lining the pockets of rich men like himself. This is why he's the left's very favorite billionaire. His beef isn’t with the substance of Warren’s politics, it’s with her tone.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/03/02/warren_buffett_to_elizabeth_warren_smile_honey/feed/56“We spawned Osama bin Laden”: Brian Schweitzer isn’t done talkinghttp://www.salon.com/2014/06/19/we_spawned_osama_bin_laden_brian_schweitzer_isnt_done_talking/
http://www.salon.com/2014/06/19/we_spawned_osama_bin_laden_brian_schweitzer_isnt_done_talking/#commentsThu, 19 Jun 2014 18:13:00 +0000Elias Isquithhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13705550In a new profile in National Journal, former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer — a self-styled populist Democrat who has long been rumored to be planning a run for the White House in 2016 — says that Southern men "are a little effeminate" and that outgoing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor sets off his "gaydar" to around "60-70 percent." He also criticizes Sen. Dianne Feinstein's relationship with the NSA, implementing a metaphor in which the influential California Democrat is likened to a prostitute. As you might imagine, these comments have not gone unnoticed.

When Salon called Schweitzer earlier this week (before the National Journal profile was published), though, the two-term governor and current MSNBC contributor had other things than effeminacy and the sex trade on his mind. In a wide-ranging interview conducted just after Schweitzer had appeared on "The Ed Show," Schweitzer sounded off on the latest news from Iraq, why the Middle East isn't America's problem, why we should think twice before trusting the judgment of Hillary Clinton, how President Obama mucked-up healthcare reform and why he decided to speak at Mitt Romney's annual donor gala. Our conversation is below and has been edited for clarity and length.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2014/06/19/we_spawned_osama_bin_laden_brian_schweitzer_isnt_done_talking/feed/70Report: North Dakota’s crude oil is particularly explosivehttp://www.salon.com/2014/01/03/report_north_dakotas_crude_oil_is_particularly_explosive/
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/03/report_north_dakotas_crude_oil_is_particularly_explosive/#commentsFri, 03 Jan 2014 18:05:00 +0000Lindsay Abramshttp://www.salon.com/?p=13569133When a mile-long train carrying crude oil through North Dakota derailed and exploded in a "giant fireball" Monday, Mayor Ed McConnell of nearby Casselton commented that his town, which evacuated as strong winds blew acrid smoke and soot toward them, had dodged a bullet. This was, after all, the fourth serious derailment in North America in just the past six months, including the July incident that saw 47 killed in Quebec. "It's almost gotten to the point that it looks like not if we're going to have an accident, it's when," McConnell told the Associated Press.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2014/01/03/report_north_dakotas_crude_oil_is_particularly_explosive/feed/24Juggling a job and family is a men’s issue, toohttp://www.salon.com/2013/05/30/hey_dads_time_to_step_up/
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/30/hey_dads_time_to_step_up/#commentsThu, 30 May 2013 11:45:00 +0000icarmonhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13312014Some questions for the ladies: Are you having enough children and at the right time with the right person under the right legal arrangement? Are you working hard enough and at the right level of ambition? Are your kids suffering for it?

And one question for the men: Guys, are you even reading this?

If you've spent any time reading about the radical but incomplete changes in family life in the United States in recent years, you could be forgiven for thinking they’re a female problem. It's as if women are doing this all by ourselves, a special female problem to be fixed in our lady’s corner -- not for nothing has "work-life balance" been defined as a "women's issue." It’s true that women’s lives have changed the most dramatically. But framing it as only the concern of half the population -- incidentally, the half that collectively has far less political and economic power -- is a recipe for very little change.

Men and women face different circumstances -- including biological ones around pregnancy and childbearing -- but as long as families are made up of both men and women, these are everyone's issues, and men need to step up. The question is how to talk about them without turning it into an angry zero sum game or oppression Olympics.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2013/05/30/hey_dads_time_to_step_up/feed/46Major charitable gifts dropped by 30 percent last yearhttp://www.salon.com/2013/01/04/major_charitable_gifts_dropped_by_30_percent_last_year/
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/04/major_charitable_gifts_dropped_by_30_percent_last_year/#commentsFri, 04 Jan 2013 19:45:00 +0000nlennardhttp://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13162064Britain's conservative Prime Minister David Cameron couches his current austerity government policy in the rhetoric of "The Big Society." The idea is that as the government hacks away at the welfare state, notions of civic society will be invoked to replace Britain's benefits safety net. Volunteerism and charitable giving will patch up the gaping wounds left by budget cuts, or so the proponents of Cameron's Big Society would suggest.

Tomes can and have been filled about the problems underpinning Cameron's Big Society. One issue among many is that the charitable giving of the very wealthy is an inconsistent resource. As new findings by the Chronicle of Philanthropy show, major charitable gifts in the U.S. dropped by 30 percent in 2012:

The largest gifts announced by American philanthropists in 2012 totaled nearly $5.1 billion, but $3 billion of that was from Warren Buffett’s promise in August to give stock valued at $1 billion to each of three foundations run by his children.

Without Mr. Buffett’s pledges, the biggest gifts announced in 2012 would have totaled only $2 billion — far less than 2011’s $2.6 billion.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2013/01/04/major_charitable_gifts_dropped_by_30_percent_last_year/feed/4Obama’s humblebrag: How to tell everyone you’re richhttp://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/obamas_humblebrag_how_to_tell_everyone_youre_rich/
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/obamas_humblebrag_how_to_tell_everyone_youre_rich/#commentsThu, 06 Dec 2012 17:04:00 +0000icarmonhttp://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13116569Mitt Romney was never able to find the right way to talk about his money, but Barack Obama is happy to tell you that he's rich, again and again. That is, if he's asking for higher marginal taxes on the rich, whose ranks Obama first joined with book-related earnings and then with his $400,000 White House salary.

Obama said it again this week: "What the country needs … is an acknowledgment that folks like me can afford to pay a little bit higher rate," he told Bloomberg News. He's been saying it at least since April 2011, when he was pushing the "Buffett rule": "I don't need another tax cut," he said. "Warren Buffett doesn't need another tax cut."

]]>http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/obamas_humblebrag_how_to_tell_everyone_youre_rich/feed/11The Simpson-Bowles consensus makes no sensehttp://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/the_simpson_bowles_consensus_makes_no_sense/
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/the_simpson_bowles_consensus_makes_no_sense/#commentsWed, 28 Nov 2012 23:51:00 +0000Jacob Sugarmanhttp://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13109793 The Simpson-Bowles budget balancing plan seems to have become the common-sense standard for dealing with America’s future budget deficits. I’d say this move toward the right is dangerous to the future of the nation and essentially cruel—far more dangerous than the level of the deficit over the next 15 years. The commission, formally known as the Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, appointed by President Obama, achieves its deficit reduction by reducing government spending to do two-thirds of the job and raising taxes to do only one-third of the job. Even 50-50 would not be fair in such a low-tax nation. The commission proposed cuts in Social Security benefits of 15 percent for medium earners, for example.

But easily the most short-sighted objective is to hold federal spending to 21 percent of Gross Domestic Product into the future. How did they get this number? It is roughly the average level of federal spending since 1970. This is not a reasonable standard—it is not even a way to think about the issue. So where did the idea originally come from? The answer: the right-wing Heritage Foundation.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/the_simpson_bowles_consensus_makes_no_sense/feed/30Charity isn’t always praiseworthyhttp://www.salon.com/2012/09/21/billionaire_charity_isnt_always_praiseworthy/
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/21/billionaire_charity_isnt_always_praiseworthy/#commentsFri, 21 Sep 2012 21:20:00 +0000nlennardhttp://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13018536As Salon noted earlier this week, 11 more billionaires joined Warren Buffett and Bill Gates' Giving Pledge, making a promise to donate half or more of their fortunes to charity.

The initiative has received broad praise in the media, but little focus has gone into the pledge's consequences. Light digging into the details, however, shows the pledge to be a very open-ended promise indeed.

First, there is nothing binding in the pledge, described on its website as a "moral commitment to give, not a legal contract." No doubt the public and social pressure could shame someone with a spare half-billion to follow through, but where this money goes is another question entirely. Giving Pledge guidelines note:

The pledge asks only that the individual give the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes or charitable organizations after their death … Each person who takes the Giving Pledge makes an individual decision about which particular causes or organizations they wish to support.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2012/09/21/billionaire_charity_isnt_always_praiseworthy/feed/15More billionaires pledge fortunes to charityhttp://www.salon.com/2012/09/19/more_billionaires_pledge_fortunes_to_charity/
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/19/more_billionaires_pledge_fortunes_to_charity/#commentsWed, 19 Sep 2012 16:08:00 +0000nlennardhttp://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13016196In 2010, investment leviathan Warren Buffett joined computer mogul Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, in launching the Giving Pledge to convince similarly rich people to give 50 percent or more of their fortunes to charity. On Tuesday 11 new multimillionaires and billionaires joined the initiative. New pledges, including Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and the guy behind those little five-hour energy drinks, join illustrious philanthropists like Mark Zuckerburg, Ted Turner and Michael Bloomberg in agreeing that they can probably do without at least half of their fortunes.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2012/09/19/more_billionaires_pledge_fortunes_to_charity/feed/4CainTV: Wackier than Palinhttp://www.salon.com/2012/07/05/caintv_wackier_than_palin/
http://www.salon.com/2012/07/05/caintv_wackier_than_palin/#commentsThu, 05 Jul 2012 13:45:00 +0000Mary Bethhttp://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12950968Remember last year when Herman Cain unleashed the world's most amazing campaign ad? Remember how, right after you talked yourself down from the dark fear that the creepy smiling man could ever occupy the White House, you started wishing for an entire network exactly like that catchy "I am! Americaaaaaa!" clip? Well, the Fourth of July isn't American Christmas for nothing, folks.

On Wednesday, our greatest foe in the war on "sissy pizza" answered your prayers and launched "a bold solution to the rampant ignorance being thrust upon the people of this nation by lazy and blatantly biased news media outlets." Welcome to CainTV, the Web network whose motto brags, "We are not stupid." And nothing says "We are not stupid" like a rant against billionaire "Warren Buffet" [sic]. I remember him. He's the guy who made his fortune in Sizzler sneeze guards, right?

]]>http://www.salon.com/2012/07/05/caintv_wackier_than_palin/feed/11Congressional study: Warren Buffett is righthttp://www.salon.com/2011/10/13/congressional_study_warren_buffett_is_right/
http://www.salon.com/2011/10/13/congressional_study_warren_buffett_is_right/#commentsThu, 13 Oct 2011 19:30:00 +0000Peter Finocchiarohttp://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10110547When Warren Buffett argued in the New York Times in August that America's richest weren't paying their fair share, many on the right lambasted the Oracle as a clandestine class warrior working on incorrect assumptions. Likewise, when President Obama rolled out his new tax plan last month -- based on the "The Buffett Rule," that the country's millionaires and billionaires shouldn't pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than ordinary Americans -- Republicans in Congress denounced it as a job killer.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service set out to test both of those assertions, and found each of them wanting. The rich? Many actually do pay less than average Americans. And that tax plan? Unlikely to hurt those small businesses that Republicans say drive our economy.